Page 10 - DSOC202_SOCIAL_STRATIFICATION_ENGLISH

Unit 1: Understanding Social Stratification

2. What makes wage labourers, capitalists and landlords to constitute the three great social classes? Notes
Though Marx has not given a clear conception of social stratification, however, he has emphasized
on empirical referents of his formulation of class and class struggle. According to Marx, each
period of history is characterized by a predominant mode of production and based upon it is a
class structure consisting of a ruling class and an oppressed class, which could be seen as two
strata of society. The struggle between these classes determines the social relations between men
and groups. This is further determined by control over the means of production, and thereby the
whole moral and intellectual life of the people. Law and government, art and literature, science
and philosophy - all serve more or less directly the interests of the ruling class.
We do not find a clear distinction in Marx between “class” and “status” or between class hierarchy
and social stratification. Marx makes it explicit that “production” is by “social individuals” and it
needs to be understood in a given “social context”. In the context of social stratification the
Marxian framework highlights the terms such as “domination” and “subjugation” or “effective
superiority-inferiority relationships”. As such, the two classes are bourgeoisie and proletariat.
Thus, according to Marx, a social class is any aggregate of persons who perform the same function
in the organization of production. Historically speaking, freeman and slave, patrician and plebian,
lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, or in a word, oppressor and oppressed, constitute
social classes. Marx considers class as a social reality, an existing fact. A class is a real group with
a developed consciousness of its existence, its position and goals. For Marx, class is a mirror for
seeing the totality of relations in a given society.

Based on the Marxian framework, we could say that stratification is determined by
the system of relations of production and “status” is determined by a man’s position
in this system in terms of ownership and non-ownership of the means of production.

Max Weber’s Viewpoint

A sound and logically formulated view by Max Weber on social stratification can be taken as a
critique on the Marxian concept of class and stratification. “Power” is a keynote of the Weberian
theory of social stratification. Weber draws a clear distinction between three “orders” of society,
namely, economic, social and political. He observes that “classes”, “status groups” and “parties”
are phenomena of the distribution of power within a community. Such a distinction drawn by
Weber makes his theory multidimensional as against the unidimensional theory of class propounded
by Marx.
Regarding class, Weber writes :
(a) A number of people have in common a specific causal component of their life chances.
(b) This component is represented exclusively by economic interests in the possession of goods
and opportunities for income.
(c) Further, this is represented under the conditions of the commodity or labour markets.
These three points put together refer to “class situation”. The class situation is determined by
“market situation”. The term “class” refers to any group of people that is found in the same class
situation. “Property” and “lack of property” are, therefore, the basic categories of all class situations.
Competition eliminates some players in the market situation and patronizes others. Class situation
is thus ultimately market situation. The kind of chance in the market is the decisive moment.
However, the two are not identical. The social order is determined by the economic order to a high
degree, and in turn reacts upon it. Here, we find a skilful application of Marxist ethos in Weber’s

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